How To Master Music - Book 2 Harmony Return to catalog Table Of Contents   HOW TO;     Choose Chords     Smooth Out Chord Motion - Parts I, II, III, and IV     Energize Chord Progressions - Parts I and II     Accentuate the Triad     Make the Most of Major Sevenths     Handle Diminished Seventh Chords     Augment Your Half-Diminished Seventh Repertoire - Parts I, II, and III     Rotate Seventh Chords     Americanize European Augmented-Sixth Chords - Parts I, II, and III     Connect Chords Chromatically     Make Turn-Around Changes     Refresh Classic Cliches     Maintain Modal Quality     Make Voicings Speak Clearly - Parts I, II, and III     Drive Chromatic Wedges into Harmony     Handle Pandiatonic Harmony - Parts I and II     Make Big Chords Sound Great - Parts I and II     Handle Quartal Harmony     Combine Keys     Unlock Keys     Build Backgrounds - Parts I, II, and III   123 pages	Sample Page...   6. HOW TO energize chord progressions Part 1 All the changes in the universe may be regarded as energy running about from one form to another" - Sir James Jeans Maybe so in physical science. But in music, some changes energize; others enervate. While musical motion directly caused by harmonic and/or melodic pressure radiates energy, motion not resulting from those causal forces may portray little more than tonal color, and motion directly contradicting those forces tends to sap harmonic strength. Musicians seeking fresh harmonic energy sources can hardly expect to find them in the fossil fuels of strict tradition, a tradition which still frowns on false relations, still condemns consecutive fifths, still restricts its ending chords to simple Tonic triads, still shackles its practitioners to preconceived chord progressions. Instead, energy-seekers might expect to revitalize their harmonic processes from new applications of the acoustical causes for tonal activity. But to do this efficiently and effectively, those seekers first must recognize just which forces and motions can convert into harmonic energy (unless otherwise indicated, all examples will be in the key of C): In Example A, numbers indicate energizers, as follows: Change of position (chord inversion). Change of harmonic area. Root motion to a note not heard in the previous chord. Presence of active tones resolving in the direction of their tendencies. Buildup of tension while remaining in the same harmonic area. Example A played backwards becomes Example B, which contains fewer energizers than does Example A: Comparing the energy levels of Examples A and B deserves a lot of time.